Ergonomic Work Analysis: A Case in Precast Industry from the Use of OWAS and RULA Methods

Éverton de Sousa Abreu and Hélio Cavalcanti Albuquerque Neto

Abstract—The precast industry having activities that require great physical effort of workers, given that an increasing growth in the use of these constructions in components. Thus, the sector must have continuous monitoring of their activities, in order to seek interventions that aim to ensure a healthy work environment. With the intention to offer a healthy environment for workers, this study adopted the Ergonomic Work Analysis (EWA) as ergonomic diagnostic method to evaluate the working conditions imposed on workers of a precast industry located in the city of Teresina-PI. Was used two checklists established in the literature (OWAS and RULA) for the analysis with a sample of the population of workers who come each production sector in order to identify the postures taken by employees during the performance of work activities and their consequent discomforts and risks of developing diseases related to work. From the analysis there were many postural constraints made by workers and various areas of discomfort in the body, as well as poor conditions related to physical/environmental, generating disease development risks related to work. Finally, some recommendations were made in order to neutralize the bad working conditions identified.

Index Terms—Ergonomic work analysis, OWAS, precast industry, RULA.

The authors are with the Department of Industrial Engineering in the Federal University of Piaui, Teresina-PI-Brazil (e-mail: evertonsousa@hotmail.com, helio@ufpi.edu.br).

Cite: Éverton de Sousa Abreu and Hélio Cavalcanti Albuquerque Neto, "Ergonomic Work Analysis: A Case in Precast Industry from the Use of OWAS and RULA Methods," International Journal of Materials, Mechanics and Manufacturing vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 68-71, 2017.